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Boulder to loosen restriction on advertising for co-op housing

Director of Boulder Housing Coalition says that 'overall, things are going really well' with co-op law

By Alex Burness

Staff Writer

Posted:
02/07/2018 02:39:12 PM MST

Updated:
02/07/2018 06:23:29 PM MST

Ethan Welty, right, shows off the thickness of his cooking stock to Alana Wilson and Mehdi Heris as they cook dinner at the Picklebric co-op in Boulder on Tuesday night. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

Co-ops approved under Boulder's new ordinance

Folsom Funny Farm: Rental co-op in north Boulder, approved for up to 11 residents

Ingram Court: Not-for-profit co-op in Martin Acres, approved for up to 12 residents

Picklebric: Rental co-op on University Hill, approved for up to 12 residents

Rad-ish: Rental co-op in Martin Acres, approved for up to 10 residents

WHY House: Rental co-op in south Boulder, approved for up to 7 residents

Boulder's City Council is looking to loosen some of the restrictions written into the ordinance on cooperative housing that it approved about one year ago.

Most significantly for prospective co-op organizers and residents, Boulder will pull back the prohibition in the city code stating that no one can advertise a co-op without first obtaining a license from the city.

"This has presented some obstacles for groups trying to organize and recruit for cooperatives," city staffers wrote in a memo to the council.

The issue is that Boulder passed a law meant to make it easier for co-ops to form, but wrote in the advertising provision and, in so doing, made it very difficult for people to meet even for basic discussion about forming a co-op.

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"While we appreciate the intent behind barring illegitimate co-ops from advertising," said Christina Gosnell of the Boulder Community Housing Association, in a comment at Tuesday's council meeting, "the current interpretation that no one can advertise even to talk, even to try to form a core group and just get together to try to talk about the possibility of forming a co-op, is relatively unworkable."

"I don't think we should stop people from getting together to talk about whether or not they want to form (a co-op)," Councilman Sam Weaver said.

None of his colleagues voiced any disagreement. They also agreed to lift some other pre-requirements concerning RTD passes for co-op residents and co-ops' arrangements with trash haulers.

The co-op ordinance — adopted in January of 2017 after months of citizen input and deliberation by the Planning Board and City Council — allows for the creation of co-ops with up to 12 people in low-density residential zones, and up to 15 people in all other residential zones.

Co-op applications opened in July, and since then five co-ops have been approved. One other is awaiting approval.

Lincoln Miller, executive director of Boulder Housing Coalition, said that "overall, things are going really well" with the law.

But Miller has voiced frustration in recent months with the advertising provision, among some other aspects of what the council authored.

"The ordinance is challenging to navigate," he told council members Tuesday. "It's a 70-page application. It takes months to prepare. This thing's not easy to do."

He noted that's had the benefit of thwarting would-be imposter co-ops seeking simply to jam large groups of people into homes without any of the cooperative lifestyle elements that define this housing type.

The council directed the city staff to implement some changes, like the one concerning advertising, and agreed to hold off until later to address other potential issues.

"The longer we let it go before we review it," Councilwoman Mary Young said of the law, "the better and the more refined the checklists are. The longer we let it go, the more data we have. The more data we have, the better decisions we make."

Most other council members seemed to feel the same way, and the group agreed to schedule a "check-in" on the ordinance for 2019.

That came as a relief to co-op proponents who did not want to see a public relitigation of the ordinance, which was extremely contentious during its drafting, and which remains a source of great frustration for some who feel co-ops and the density they bring represent infringements on neighborhood character.

"I've grown weary of being at war with a segment of my neighbors in this town," she said.

Gosnell said that while her group feels "generally supportive" of the priority amendments city staff recommended, it feels this is not the time to "crack open" the co-op ordinance and give it another round of public hearings, given there were countless hours of citizen feedback on co-ops in 2016 and 2017, and given that it's only been an active law for about six months.

At the end of the council's discussion Tuesday, Councilwoman Cindy Carlisle saluted a poem that Lior Gross of the Rad-ish Collective submitted to the Daily Camera last week. The poem explored the joys Gross experiences with co-op living, but also highlights a feeling among co-op residents that not all consider them welcome in Boulder neighborhoods.

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